#jaybin readthrough

[warrior-of-storms]

Okay but do you know what really gets me?

There's no one left in-universe who can or will talk about Jaybin as he really was.

Bruce is the founder of the Jaybin Slander Department;

Alfred is no better.

Dick wasn't around much, didn't know him that well.

If Barbara ever interacted with him in his original run, I haven't found it yet.

I mean, he had some interactions with the Teen Titans, but was he really close with any of them?

I suppose Gordon could, assuming he isn't in on the Jason-bashing. I haven't seen it but I could be missing something.

And, well, Jason... somehow, I don't think anyone's asking Jason what he was like as a kid, nor is he really a reliable source. Autobiographical memory is weird.

No one in-universe will ever really talk about this bright, friendly, eager kid, and it's a tragedy.

He was smart and clever and had so much compassion.

He wanted so badly to help people, and he found joy in his work as Robin.

He had a dramatic flair and he was kind of a nerd and he was really funny on occasion.

He was so deeply, fundamentally good, and the fact that somehow his legacy has been twisted into one of anger and recklessness is honestly a crime.

It makes me so desperately sad that there's not a single character who can even start to undo the lasting damage of a four-decade smear campaign against a kid who did nothing to deserve it.

[warrior-of-storms]

Jason's canon (or implied canon) hobbies/interests

Reading (extremely well established in every era, it's his most well-known hobby)

Writing (pre-Crisis)

Video games (pre-Crisis & Rebirth both)

Theatre, specifically tech (pre & post-Crisis)

History (post-Crisis)

Sci-fi (pre & post-Crisis; movies specifically mentioned but he probably likes sci-fi books too)

Fashion/costuming (post-Crisis)

Museums (pre & post-Crisis)

Movies (pre-Crisis, and not nearly as much as Bullock but he is definitely something of a cinephile)

[warrior-of-storms]

Reading every 80s Jaybin comic has made me so much more annoying about timing misconceptions that I see in fics a lot, mostly having to do with Dick. When Jason was Robin...

Dick did not live in Bludhaven. Dick lived in New York with the Titans

Dick had not been a cop yet. That didn't happen until around NML (he mentions applying to the academy in Road to No Man’s Land)

Dick was still Discowing. In fact, he was still like two or three costumes away from his classic black & blue finger stripe suit

Dick hadn't had his mullet or ponytail eras yet

Dick was dating Kory

Barbara wasn't shot until shortly before ADitF, meaning she's could've shown up as Batgirl while Jason was Robin. She didn't with the exception of pre-Crisis Jason's origin story and a retcon from Gotham Knights, but she could have.

Bruce had several girlfriends/love interests during Jason’s Robin run, especially pre-Crisis. Primarily Selina, but Bruce also had something with Vicki Vale, Julia Pennyworth, Natalia Knight/Nocturna, and very briefly at the very end of pre-Crisis, Talia. Jason was notably jealous of Selina for taking so much of Bruce's attention, and he didn’t like her all that much because of that

There's no real point to this, I just. I guess. if you don't want to read the comics, you can always just check the DC wiki for when a certain event or issue came out. That's pretty well-recorded most of the time 👍

[warrior-of-storms]

Natalia: Jason we need to hide the body

Jason: okay

[warrior-of-storms]

From the letters column of Detective Comics #546

Letters column, Detective Comics #547

Letter column, Detective Comics #558

Letter column, Detective Comics #559

Letter column, Detective Comics #560

Letter column, Detective Comics #565

Letter column, Detective Comics #567

[warrior-of-storms]

Dick really said "I accidentally got this kid's parents killed so I, an 18 year old who lives with a bunch of other barely-adults in New York, should adopt him"

The hug in costume is cute though <3

[warrior-of-storms]

I. hm. Jason. Jason, don't say things like that.

[warrior-of-storms]

So I realized something while reading Batman #430-440 - I think a lot of people in-universe probably think that there were only three, possibly four, Robins (depending on how many people knew about Steph.)

This is immediately after Jason's death, like literally two issues afterward. Bruce doesn't say Robin's dead. Bruce just says he isn't with him.

Throughout Batman: Year Three, it's repeated that Bruce refuses to acknowledge Jason's death. He didn't contact anyone. He didn't tell anyone anything. Gordon was at Jason's funeral, but clearly he didn't know Jason was Robin if he was asking where Robin was two issues later. Dick had to find out from Danny (ugh) and check for himself through the computer files. Then, in A Lonely Place of Dying, Tim says this:

"The newspapers don't know about Robin's death..."

We also get this scene between Dick and Gordon:

...which means in the months since Jason's death at this point, Gordon still doesn't know that Robin is dead.

Jason was short for his age when he died, only 5'4 when the average 15-16 year old boy is closer to 5'8, and Tim isn't that much younger than him, about 13 when he became Robin. If you look at Tim vs Jason compared to Dick, they're not that far off height-wise. They look similar enough at a glance. I really think it's not a stretch to assume that most people outside the hero community* think that Jaybin and Timbin are the same Robin.

*I specify outside the hero community because all of the Titans were present when Dick found out about Jason's death, so I'm willing to bet that word got around. But just regular people? Yeah, no, there's a non-zero chance that Jaybin and Timbin are seen as one guy who had a couple costume changes rather than two separate Robins.